Power
by AzureSkye23
Summary: Dash is tired of Danny's apathy towards his bullying, and takes it out on Sam. One irate halfa later, and Casper High has its views of power turned upside down. Oneshot.


**Hmm...I'm still ambivalent on this one. I think its slightly OOC...But hey, lets just say this is a pushed-to-his-limits Danny...Or a Danny who doesn't care anymore, and has a backbone. :) **

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><p>"YOU WON'T TOUCH HER AGAIN!" Danny yelled at Dash, furious. Being shoved into lockers, run up flag poles, all the humiliation heaped upon him, he could handle. But not Sam. Never Sam.<p>

Dash slammed him against the lockers he'd been slamming Sam against. "Stop playing the hero, Fenton. You're too weak loser." Dash sneered. Danny snapped. He slammed out an open palm, and caught Dash in the chest, throwing him back several paces.

"Stop playing the hero?" Danny asked him, contempt dripping from every word. "And what? Let everything come crashing down? Too weak? Yeah, sometimes I am. But I still fight. I fight everyday to protect everyone, and I NEVER get any reward for it."

"Protect people? You?" Dash scoffed. Danny glared. Then, reaching inside himself, he let white rings of light wash over him. The school gaped.

"Yeah. Me. I'm failing, worse than you half the time, because I'm up until three or four every morning because I'm fighting ghosts. I don't get my homework done, because I have to save the world. I cut class, because no one else can help.

"I've been burned, broken, beat up, cloned, controlled, tortured, been called evil, hunted BY MY OWN PARENTS, and got up the next day and done it again." Here he pulled off a pure white glove, and rolled up the black hazmat suit, reveling a nasty cut on his forearm. The reason he had been wearing a hoodie that day became painfully clear.

"And they I come to school. I'm a loser, a wimp." He reached inside of him again, letting the white rings turn him back to human. "I'm the one you take it out on when you want to. I'm the ignored. The one who's failing gym, because I won't cheat and use my powers. Do you know how easy it is to cheat for me?

"But I don't. I could have gotten you back for everything so many times! And I haven't done more than minor pranks! Because of my friends. ONE OF WHOM YOU WERE JUST SLAMMING AGAINST THE LOCKERS! They get less credit than I do. At least when I'm Phantom, I get some credit from people." Again, to prove his point, he shifted into his ghostly persona.

"But them? They never get any. Most people don't even know they exist! Any you know what? They're the only reason I do what I do. The only reason I'm still me! I did cheat one, you know? On the C.A.T. And through a freak accident I lost them. I couldn't take it. I snapped. AND I DESTROYED THE WORLD! I saw it all, I went ten years into the future to try and stop him. And I couldn't. If it hadn't been for the ghost of time giving me a second chance, NONE OF YOU WOULD BE ALIVE!

"And you thank them by calling them geek, loser. By stuffing them in lockers. You do the same to me." He smiled, then let the white rings change him, once again human, smiling in their shell-shocked faced. "But I still fight. So yeah, Dash, I play the hero. And I always will. No matter what you do, no matter what anyone does, I will still protect people. Because I will do anything in my power to protect those I care about. Because my friends believe in me."

He shrugged. Sam had gained her feet by this time, and was standing side by side with Tucker. He turned and smiled at them.

"You are the only reason I keep going. The only thing that makes it worth it. I know I don't say it, but thank you." Danny turned back to Dash.

"So I'm a loser. So be it. It's better than popularity, I've found. But I promise you this. You hurt any of my friends again, and you will have one very angry halfa after you. And I keep my promises." He turned and walked over to Sam, making sure she wasn't seriously hurt.

Then, with glances at his friends, they all walked out the doors, leaving behind one very confused Dash Baxter, one very guilty Edward Lancer, one very shocked Valerie, one very clueless Paulina, and one student body that had just had their view of power turned upside down.


End file.
